Guidance Notes and Best Practice Guides
LLUK: The introduction of new qualifications for learning support practitioners will support the professionalisation of this important role within the lifelong learning sector. The qualifications will also lead to a wider recognition of the valuable contribution that learning support makes to the teaching and learning process.
Lifelong Learning UK has produced a guidance document that will support those awarding institutions involved in the development of these qualifications. The guidance describes the role and associated responsibilities of a learning support practitioner and provides detailed information about the three new initial qualifications. It also includes the mandatory and optional units of assessment required for each.
The development of these qualifications has been underpinned by National Occupational Standards for learning support practitioners. At the time of issuing this guidance, these standards are awaiting final approval by the UK Commission for Employment and Skills.
Press release ~ Guidance for awarding institutions on learning support practitioner roles and initial training qualifications (December 2008) ~ National Occupational Standards ~ Lifelong Learning UK
ScotGov: New rules for reporting hospital infection rates will offer the public greater transparency about their local hospital's performance in Scotland. Health Secretary Nicola Sturgeon claims that the new HAI reporting template will allow health boards and the new Care Environment Inspectorate to monitor infection trends more closely.
The implementation of an HAI Reporting Template was a requirement of the action plan published following the Vale of Leven investigations and reports. The template will form the basis of infection control managers' annual reports. Health boards will now begin using the template for all future bi-monthly Board meetings.
Press release ~ Healthcare Associated Infections ~ Independent Review of the Vale of Leven clostridium difficile outbreak ~
Defra: A new one-stop shop practical guide to help farmers, growers and land managers protect the environment effectively has been launched by Farming Minister Jane Kennedy.
The Code of Good Agricultural Practice, a single document that consolidates three previous codes last published in 1998, offers free best practice advice for farmers of all kinds to protect & enhance water, soil and air quality in agricultural environments, with advice covering subjects including managing fertilisers and applying nutrients to avoid soil contamination, storing silage & handling effluents, and waste storage, recovery & disposal.
The code is appropriate for all farming systems, including organic farming, and is designed to help farmers, growers and other land managers make the most appropriate choices for their individual situations. The code also includes a section which provides advice for farmers on minimising nitrate loss to water. The practices described in this section are also included in the Action Programme of measures that farmers with land located in Nitrate Vulnerable Zones (NVZs) must implement.
Press release ~ Revised Code of Good Agricultural Practice (CoGAP) ~
LR: The Land Registry has published a guide warning against so-called ‘land banking investment schemes’ which are often advertised as offering big returns on investments in land. The government department says many investors have handed over thousands of pounds for land that has little or no chance of being developed.
Plots of land are offered for sale, often online, and sometimes with the claim that there will be huge returns when planning permission is obtained for housing or other development. But the land is usually in areas protected from development by planning law.
Press release ~ Public Guide 021 Land banking schemes - buying land in England and Wales claimed or thought to have development potential ~ Land Registry ~ FSA – Land banking
LLUK: Lifelong Learning UK has issued a companion guide to the Application of the Professional Standards for Teachers of English (literacy and ESOL) in the Lifelong Learning Sector (LLUK, 2007). The companion guide supports the professional development of teachers of literacy and ESOL in further education in England.
The guide provides teacher educators, teacher trainees and teachers with a discussion of the similarities and differences between the two disciplines, accompanied by a range of resources
Press release ~ Application of the Professional Standards for Teachers of English (literacy and ESOL) in the Lifelong Learning Sector (LLUK, 2007) ~ The companion guide for Literacy and ESOL - shared and distinctive knowledge, understanding and professional practice
MoJ: Too many burial grounds operators are staking or laying down memorials which are not a serious risk to the public. New guidance makes it clear this should only be done as a last resort. The guidance, which applies to burial grounds in England only, operators to take a sensible approach when assessing the safety of memorial stones and the risk they present to the public.
Families will still own the memorial stones and burial ground operators will need to contact them to make any repairs necessary, only taking immediate action if there is imminent risk of serious injury due to the state of the memorial.
Press release ~ Managing the Safety of Burial Ground Memorials ~ MoJ - Burials ~ Cemetery Research Group (CRG)
UKSA: The UK Statistics Authority has published the new Code of Practice for Official Statistics following a consultation in July and September 2008. Only those sets of statistics that the Authority judges to be produced in compliance with the Code will be allowed, in future, to carry the National Statistics designation – See ‘In the News’ for more information.
